The Chicago Blackhawks may be one game away from clinching a berth in the Western Conference Final, but they will be taking the ice in Tuesday night's Game 6 without one of their forwards in the lineup.
Andrew Shaw, who has missed the last four games due to a lower body injury he suffered on a hit by Clayton Stoner in Game 1 of the Blackhawks' second round series against the Minnesota Wild, will once again be out of the lineup for Game 6.
Head coach Joel Quenneville did say during his media availability on Monday that the forward could begin skating on Tuesday or Wednesday, but ruled out the 20-goal scorer from Tuesday night's lineup.
Over the time Shaw has been gone, he has been replaced in a myriad of different ways, but the Blackhawks finally seemed to get a decent formula together in Sunday night's 2-1 win over the Wild at the United Center.
Peter Regin was inserted into the lineup for the game, and he played a good chunk of minutes as the fourth line center, with Marcus Kruger and Michal Handzus also filling in up the middle. Bryan Bickell also took Shaw's place on the Blackhawks' top power play unit, scoring a goal that tied the game at 1-1.
While Tuesday's lineup is not finalized just yet (Brandon Bollig also will miss the game as he serves the second game of a two-game suspension for his Game 4 hit on Keith Ballard), it would be hard to imagine Quenneville making many changes after his team finally found some success in generating scoring opportunities Sunday night.
